File Activity Plugin - How can I figure out what keeps spinning up my disks?

[dlandon]

1 hour ago, J05u said:

Hello,

Any idea why I can't start file activity?

Check the log for a message about not enough inotify watches.  if you see that use the tips and tweeks plugin to add more.

[PlanetDyna]

Iam doing something wrong?

 

 

[dlandon]

29 minutes ago, PlanetDyna said:

Iam doing something wrong?

 

 

Post thediagnostics zip file.

[PlanetDyna]

Its working. Sorry - it just got a while to display used files.

[djismgaming]

Thanks for this great plugin!

 

I have a VM that does a lot of modifications to it's disk (homeassistant VM). Would it be possible to have an option to exclude domains also?
 

Thanks again for this great plugin!

[dlandon]

The file activity plugin was designed to help with array spin ups.  You can exclude Cache and Pool devices that are normally SSD devices and where appdata should reside.  Your Home Assistant appdata should be on a Cache or Pool device if it is not.  This plugin is meant to work at the device level, not the share level.

[Lilarcor]

On 11/21/2022 at 10:06 PM, dlandon said:

Post thediagnostics zip file.

I got the same issue, can you help me to check?

It's working after a few minutes.

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Lilarcor

[JasonK]

Installed the plugin.  Set it to monitor everything but cache...and to display activity by disk.  Saved settings.  Tell it to start monitoring...shows that its running.

After about 10 secs, I do a refresh, and it shows as Stopped.  If I start it again, same thing happens - after about 10 secs, it stops.

 

Any ideas?

[dlandon]

37 minutes ago, JasonK said:

Installed the plugin.  Set it to monitor everything but cache...and to display activity by disk.  Saved settings.  Tell it to start monitoring...shows that its running.

After about 10 secs, I do a refresh, and it shows as Stopped.  If I start it again, same thing happens - after about 10 secs, it stops.

 

Any ideas?

That's generally because there aren't enough inotify watches.  Look at the syslog and there should be a message saying that.

 

If that is the case, install the Tips and Tweaks plugin and set the inotify watches so you have enough.  A little trial and error will get you there.

[JasonK]

6 hours ago, dlandon said:

That's generally because there aren't enough inotify watches.  Look at the syslog and there should be a message saying that.

 

If that is the case, install the Tips and Tweaks plugin and set the inotify watches so you have enough.  A little trial and error will get you there.

Hmm - Is it the "Max User Watches" setting?  If so, this is what I have currently: 

[dlandon]

6 minutes ago, JasonK said:

Hmm - Is it the "Max User Watches" setting?  If so, this is what I have currently: 

Yes, make it a large number and then start file activity.   Keep increasing until file activity starts.  Watch to the right side and be sure the "Available User Watches" is a positive number.

[JasonK]

Yup - that is the setting.  Changed it to 1024000 and after a bit FIle Activity was seeing files.  Thanks!

[dlandon]

Just now, JasonK said:

Yup - that is the setting.  Changed it to 1024000 and after a bit FIle Activity was seeing files.  Thanks!

It does use consume memory, so you might want to back it off a bit.

[thany]

There seems to be a problem for File Activity to see any, well, activity.

 

Clearly, I'm reading 260MB/s off of my main array. I even know which file it is. I'm just testing to see what FA makes of it. And the answer is nothing. Nothing is added in the log. Either on disk or share mode. All three checkboxes ticked.

 

I'm on Unraid 6.11.5.

unraid-diagnostics-20230226-2252.zip

Edited February 26, 2023 by thany

[dlandon]

Several things to note:

• File activity does not monitor appdata, syslogs, or system shares.
• Only file open, file attribute changes, file move, file create, file delete, and file modify operations are logged in file activity.  You'll not see file activity with constant reading of one file.

[apandey]

3 hours ago, dlandon said:

You'll not see file activity with constant reading of one file

that probably explains why I cannot troubleshoot my lack of spindown. I see my parity drives spindown, but data drives don't, so it must be read activity. Is there a good way to look for reads only? 

Also, would help if there was a way to only track a specific disk in array, sometimes it's easier to just focus on one disk where you dont expect activity and not be buried by logs from another disk where you do expect action

[zoro25]

Hi I'm unable to get file activity to start. 

Syslogs look like this. 
Mar 12 00:38:50 NewNas file.activity: Starting File Activity
Mar 12 00:38:50 NewNas file.activity: File Activity inotify starting
Mar 12 00:38:50 NewNas file.activity: File Activity inotify exiting

It never starts and just goes back to a stopped state when I attempt to start it. 

I have a very high iNotify watch number but still no joy?

Any idea

[dlandon]

4 hours ago, zoro25 said:

Hi I'm unable to get file activity to start. 

Syslogs look like this. 
Mar 12 00:38:50 NewNas file.activity: Starting File Activity
Mar 12 00:38:50 NewNas file.activity: File Activity inotify starting
Mar 12 00:38:50 NewNas file.activity: File Activity inotify exiting

It never starts and just goes back to a stopped state when I attempt to start it. 

I have a very high iNotify watch number but still no joy?

Any idea

Post diagnostics.

[zoro25]

On 3/12/2023 at 6:02 AM, dlandon said:

Post diagnostics.

Thanks

newnas-diagnostics-20230316-2216.zip

[dlandon]

16 hours ago, zoro25 said:

Thanks

newnas-diagnostics-20230316-2216.zip 327.99 kB · 1 download

Show a screen shot of your File Activiy setup.  Also show a screen shot of the Tips and Tweaks plugin showing the inotify watches.

[zoro25]

6 hours ago, dlandon said:

Show a screen shot of your File Activiy setup.  Also show a screen shot of the Tips and Tweaks plugin showing the inotify watches.

Edited March 18, 2023 by zoro25
.

[dlandon]

Some suggestions:

• Turn off monitoring of Unassigned Devices.
• Turn off monitoring of Cache and Pool devices.

The 'appdata' folder on a cache or pool device can have a large amount of files to monitor and normally a cache or pool device is an SSD.

[zoro25]

17 hours ago, dlandon said:

Some suggestions:

• Turn off monitoring of Unassigned Devices.
• Turn off monitoring of Cache and Pool devices.

The 'appdata' folder on a cache or pool device can have a large amount of files to monitor and normally a cache or pool device is an SSD.

It's running now thanks. 


Thanks for your help. 

[DataCollector]

On 2/6/2023 at 7:45 PM, dlandon said:

The file activity plugin was designed to help with array spin ups.

Question: does FA show me write operations of zfs Pools consistin of multiple harddisks (not SSD) in Raid0 mode in unraid 6.12.0 rc2?

I have FA installed.

I habe a pool/cache of 2 Harddrives, that I access only one every day or less. But everytime I look in the unraid main tab those disks seen to be spinning (green indicator).

In Syslog: i can not see what is waking them up.

In FA: Actvity is empty, even when I just wrote several files to the share, that is exclusively on that zfs pool.

 

(FA config, see screenshot below).

 

[dlandon]

51 minutes ago, DataCollector said:

Question: does FA show me write operations of zfs Pools consistin of multiple harddisks (not SSD) in Raid0 mode in unraid 6.12.0 rc2?

I have FA installed.

I habe a pool/cache of 2 Harddrives, that I access only one every day or less. But everytime I look in the unraid main tab those disks seen to be spinning (green indicator).

In Syslog: i can not see what is waking them up.

In FA: Actvity is empty, even when I just wrote several files to the share, that is exclusively on that zfs pool.

 

(FA config, see screenshot below).

 

Post diagnostics.  Also look at the output of this command:

cat /tmp/file.activity/file.activity.disks

and see if the share in queston is in that output.